SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- CyberMedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: CYBR) is integrating a battery of preventive and protective countermeasures into its upcoming "CyberWall", the project code name for its upcoming Microsoft Windows 95(R) consumer software product. CyberWall's simple outer face belies a complex infrastructure of functions that work collectively to insulate PCs and their users from the many perils of modern, connected computing.

Privacy As A Dollars-and-Cents Concern
With the advent of the Internet as a ubiquitous communications avenue, personal privacy becomes less a theoretical doctrine and more a dollars and cents concern. Simple, determined efforts can extract enormous amounts of personal information, often by using such seemingly innocent leads as recently visited Web sites. There are potential opportunities for determining a user's name, address, e-mail address, phone and fax numbers, employer, income, passwords, credit card numbers, bank account numbers and more. While intrusions at this level are rare, they are nonetheless real, and have the potential to do a great deal of financial damage to an individual, a family or a business. Users in corporate sites may be partially protected by a company's network firewall software, but for the most vulnerable users - those in small businesses or who work alone - there has been little that they could do, less that they could afford to do. CyberMedia recognized the need for an inexpensive mass-market product to protect these vulnerable home and small business users.

For example, an Internet browser's history files might include a page reference (URL) in some cases, this can even include a password - for a site with banking, credit card, investment or other financial information. This level of information is only available over the Web to carefully designed applets, but is directly available to anyone who can walk up to the user's PC, and may be available across a local area network. CyberWall will (at the user's option) groom history files to excise this kind of sensitive information. It will also let a user lock sensitive bookmarks (saved Web page URL references) so no applet can see them.

Popular applications can also provide an access route to personal information through their data files. A Java or Active-X application from a Web site can potentially locate and copy or transfer the small files that store such personal information as login names, passwords, financial or credit card account numbers, business service account numbers and more. CyberWall will offer both a protection mechanism to make sensitive files unavailable to such intruders and a blocking mechanism to limit the behavior of Java or Active-X applications.

There are several names for "Information Highwaymen", the people who are out to steal information, or to use information to steal money or goods or services; hackers, crackers and pirates are populous subcategories within this population. Unfortunately, their numbers include some extremely clever and resourceful people who can turn a user's own system against him or her.

For example, they can get an unwitting user's PC to deliver the goods for them, invisibly transmitting the information they desire by tapping into the user's own e-mail system, or by silently dialing the modem. CyberWall stops them and makes sure there are no clean getaways by setting up roadblocks against both.

CyberWall also controls "cookies" (small Files transmitted on entry to selected Web pages) to keep users in charge of disclosures about who they are and where they've been browsing.

Protection And Prevention: a Bouncer at the Door
Since the early days of computing, mischief alone has been motivation enough to tempt hackers to write programs that precipitate pranks or paralyze platforms. Computer viruses and "Trojan Horses" (mischievous programs that hide inside other software, only to come out later, disruptively) are among the oldest forms for this; like everything else in computing, advances in technology make them much more sophisticated today than ever before. CyberWall incorporates full-time antivirus protection licensed from a leading third party. It provides full-time protection against this class of threat, including those that are buried within compressed Files (common in e-mail attachments and online downloads). And it uses a "sandbox" to corral "Trojan Horse" attacks.

The "sandbox" in CyberWall monitors an application for dangerous behavior, like silently sending reformat or reboot commands. CyberWall alerts its user to this mischief before letting the command pass. If the application does not misbehave, the user can "certify" it, so it can "play outside the sandbox" (run normally, without this safety check) from then on.

It's noteworthy that even users without Internet or online access to remote sites can be exposed to virus, Trojan Horse and similar threats. Software or simply documents passed from one user to another on diskette (or across a business's local area network) can extend the reach of online mischief many times over.

The Web brings a new class of threat in the form of "evil pages" that, through one trick or another, profit at the expense of unsuspecting users. CyberWall maintains a "black list" of known nefarious sites, and blocks browsers from letting users enter them unaware.

Both of these features are self-updating through CyberWall's use of CyberMedia Oil Change online update technology. As often as a user wishes, CyberWall will "plug in" to the Oil Change server and update itself. These updates include improvements in the program itself, the latest virus pattern files and an up-to-the-minute "black list" of "evil pages" sites.

Viruses and Trojan Horses aren't the only evils that can come in a download or on a disk. Anytime an application or applet (small application, like those "pushed" onto a system by Java or Active-X) acts dangerously or tries to access inappropriate Files, CyberWall stops it in its tracks and tells the user what's happening. Once warned, it's the user's option whether to let the program continue or to terminate it.

One recent Web scam involves an applet that instructs the browser to disconnect and silently dial a number that invokes substantial telephone charges. CyberWall detects such attempts and, again, lets users put an end to them.

CyberWall also lets users specify subdirectories they want to safeguard from prying outside "eyes" and provides firewall-like protection for those sensitive Files. Even with this protection in place, CyberWall's countermeasures are transparent to a user "phoning home" with a remote access or remote control application.

Extending CyberMedia ActiveHelp(TM) Technology
CyberWall represents the fourth CyberMedia product family to use the company's proprietary ActiveHelp technology. ActiveHelp, extends the innate abilities of these business software utilities to include additional resources available through Internet connections and the World Wide Web.

In CyberWall, ActiveHelp, includes its ability to adapt to changing threats through antivirus pattern updates, "black list" updates and "self- improvement" program updates, all using the company's innovative Oil Change technology. Other ActiveHelp, elements may be added before the product's commercial release.

The company's other ActiveHelp, applications include First Aid(R), Oil Change and Uninstaller(TM) software product families.

Platforms and Availability
CyberMedia will release a public Windows 95 beta of CyberWall by midsummer, and issue a full retail release by the end of summer. Versions for Windows NT and for "Memphis" (the as-yet-unnamed successor to Windows 95, sometimes also referred to as Windows 97 or Windows 98) will follow.

There will be several alternative ways to purchase CyberWall. It will be available through retail software resellers. It will be available for sale from the CyberMedia Web site. There will also be corporate site and enterprise licensing plans; CyberMedia has not yet determined whether these will be offered through an internal major accounts sales organization or through distributor/VAR channels.

As purchased, the package will include both the software and a renewable one-year subscription to the update service. CyberMedia anticipates retail pricing well under $100 (US estimated street price).

CyberMedia's mission is to empower computer users to fix computer problems on their own, before they need to call technical support hotlines for help. It is the leading supplier of automatic service and support solutions for PC users; the company's ActiveHelp, product line includes First Aid(R), Oil Change(TM) Uninstaller(TM) and the Tech Support Yellow Pages.

CyberMedia products are distributed through more than 10,000 retail stores in the United States, including WalMart and CompUSA. They are also distributed internationally in Germany, Canada, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Australia. CyberMedia products are also available from OEM distribution partners, including AST, Sony, Fujitsu, Packard Bell-NEC and Phoenix Technologies. They are also available for sale on the Internet through leading online resellers as well as the CyberMedia web site, http://www.cybermedia.com.

Founded in 1991, CyberMedia employs more than 180, with company headquarters in Santa Monica, CA and offices in San Jose, CA.

For additional information contact CyberMedia, Inc., 3000 Ocean Park Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90405; phone 310-581-4700; fax 310-581-4720; e- mail info@cybermedia.com or visit the CyberMedia web site at http://www.cybermedia.com.